Central And State Leadership Of CPIM Stand Divided Over Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s Nomination For Vice President

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Gopal Krishna Gandhi

The central leadership the Communist Party of India (Marxist) may well have backed Gopal Krishna Gandhi as the opposition’s candidate for the post of vice president against NDA’s Venkaiah Naidu, the decision has not gone down well among CPI-M’s state leadership and grass root leaders of West Bengal as one of the state leaders went on to call him as the “partisan” to Trinamool Congress (TMC).

The rift between the central and state leadership occurred as Gandhi, who served as the 22nd governor of West Bengal from 2004 to 2009 during the regime of CPIM, openly criticized the role of the party for in both Singur and Nandigram issues.

During his stay in Bengal’s Raj Bhavan, Gandhi opposed the then ruling party’s decision of forcible land acquisition in Singur for setting up a small car factory by Tata Motors. As far as the Nandigram anti-land acquisition movement is concerned, Gandhi was once again not found on the side of the government. It is important to note that in both the issues the then opposition leader Mamata Banerjee organized massive protests which, the political pundits believe, to have given her a massive political relevance and helped her to gain public support by which she finally overthrew the CPIM government in 2011.

While speaking to a news agency on an anonymous basis one of the prominent state leaders of CPIM said, “How can the party forget the partisan role played by Gandhi between 2006 and 2009? This is absolute madness in the name of stopping the BJP. The party is digging its own grave.”

Expressing his total opposition to the choice of Gandhi as the as a candidate for vice president’s chair, a veteran CPIM leader of the state committee, while comparing with the blunder of joining hands with the Congress in last year’s assembly polls, said, “Last year our party leadership told us to forget about the neo-liberal policies and atrocities committed during Emergency by the Congress and instead align with it to stop the TMC and the BJP.

Now we have decided to forgive Gandhi in order to stop the BJP. Next year the party might even ask us to forgive the TMC and align with it to stop the BJP.”

While elucidating the reason behind Gandhi’s nomination and the growing opposition in the state leadership regarding the issue, CPIM’s Politburo leader Hannan Mollah, while speaking to a news agency told, There might be anger or reservations about the decision. But these are collective decisions taken in our central committee and politburo. At times it is not about forgiving someone, but about taking a decision with an eye on a bigger perspective. Now the biggest enemy of the country is the RSS and the BJP, so in order to stop them we had to support him (Gandhi).”

CPI’s Bengal secretariat member, Nepaldeb Bhattacharya said, “Those who are criticizing the party’s decision are doing that keeping in mind the Bengal perspective. They may be right from their point of view. But if you think about a pan-India perspective, you will come to see that the party has taken the right decision.”

 

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